Duaner Sanchez On The Bubble

Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes today about Mets reliever Duaner Sanchez, who could be released before April 1st. In that case the Mets would only have to pay a quarter of his ’09 salary – they’d owe about $422K. They could also shop Sanchez around; Sherman suggests they ask for Marlon Byrd or Marcus Thames.

Sanchez, 29, posted a 4.32 ERA and 6.79 K/9 for the Mets in 58.3 innings last year. He’d previously missed over a year with two shoulder surgeries in a span of nine months. His average fastball velocity was below 90 mph last year; he’d been above 93 in 2005-06.